Clippers Analyst Confused MIP for MVP Vote

When you think of candidates for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, who comes to mind? Players such as the Pacers’ Lance Stevenson? Pelican Anthony Davis? Or perhaps, high-flying DeAndre Jordan of the Clippers is what you’d prefer. Heck, even the actual winner, Goran Dragic, of the Suns deserved the nods he received.

However, as John Ferensen of NextImpulseSports.com reports, Clippers color analyst, Michael Smith listed his Most Improved Player ballot as follows: 1st-Kevin Durant, 2nd-Lebron James, 3rd-Blake Griffin. Read that again.

While Blake Griffin could have actually been a candidate, the others clearly didn’t belong in that list and it stood out immediately. Smith addressed the situation via his twitter page:

Clearly I made a mistake with MVP n MIP voting. My bad. In some ways, KD is the most improved player in game. My bad.

A mistake indeed, but according to the Bleacher Report– it could, in theory, actually throw off the MVP vote, since Smith mistakenly flip-flopped his MVP and MIP awards ballots.

The mix-up could throw a bit of a monkey wrench into MVP voting if Smith swapped both categories. Ferensen, though, said that it’s unclear whether that is the case. “It remains to be seen if Smith flip-flopped the two lines, or if he filled in his MVP choices twice. Either way, big time fail,” he wrote.

Whether or not this can be corrected at this point remains to be seen, however, I’m sure Goran Dragic will appreciate his first-ever MVP nomination.